The deep recession and the lack of any meaningful recovery has sliced into the American attitude that citizens and the government can do anything they set their minds to, if only they work hard enough. That spirit has been damaged again by a drought that has withered crops and begun to send food prices higher. It is a crisis without a solution.

While the Agriculture Department continues to try to estimate the exact effects of the drought on crop yield, the United Nations has issued its latest FAO Food Price Index for July. The index climbed 6% in July 2012 after three months of decline. Part of the report said:

The severe deterioration of maize crop prospects in the United States following extensive drought damage pushed up maize prices by almost 23 percent in July. International wheat quotations also surged 19 percent amid worsened production prospects in the Russian Federation and expectations of firm demand for wheat as feed because of tight maize supplies.

The severity of the trouble also was driven home by a request from the U.N. for a temporary end to government-mandated U.S. ethanol production. CNNMoney reports:

The severe deterioration of maize crop prospects in the United States following extensive drought damage pushed up maize prices by almost 23 percent in July. International wheat quotations also surged 19 percent amid worsened production prospects in the Russian Federation and expectations of firm demand for wheat as feed because of tight maize supplies.

The federal government is trapped between Scylla and Charybdis.

The decision about crop use should be easy. Food prices and hunger trump energy efficiency every time, or should. The U.S. attempt to wean itself off of fossil fuels will have to take a back seat. Even so, the drought is bad enough that there is nothing farmers can do, and no amount of help from Washington can solve a problem without a solution.

Added to the problems of the federal government deficit and long-term joblessness is the great trouble with food production, which has not been so severe for decades. All the country can do is watch on helplessly as one more huge challenge remains unresolved.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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